What to expect when coming to the Retreat | The Retreat at Sheppard Pratt

What to expect when coming to the Retreat

October 7, 2010 —

The decision to come to the Retreat is always filled with trepidation. What will the Retreat be like? What are the other residents like and will I be comfortable around these other people? How can I share my story with strangers? Will the benefits I hope to gain be realized?

The Retreat offers a warm, supportive, nurturing environment, with a professional staff that is sensitive to the feelings you will experience on your first day. Even so, walking through the door on for admission can be an emotional experience.

You will become more comfortable as we all go through the admission day and get to know one another. After your morning arrival and a tour of the Retreat, it is onto completing the admission paperwork with me or my designee. The paperwork includes completing demographic information, releases of confidential information, our resident agreement, financial agreement, private pay acknowledgement and a number of relevant items for your review.

With your permission, we will schedule a meeting with the family therapist, for the person who escorted you to the Retreat. We extend an invitation for lunch to whoever travelled with you to the Retreat.
There are additional appointments scheduled throughout the day with the nursing staff, psychiatrist, and a physician’s assistant. Our nursing staff will meet with you privately to complete a nursing assessment. You and the psychiatrist with whom you will work with while you are at the Retreat will have a chance to get to know one another as he/she takes a history and reviews your medications. Later in the day, you will have a history and physical completed by a physician’s assistant. Lab work will be completed on the second day.

Our staff will help you unpack, make your room comfortable and assist you in making meal selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The nursing staff will make certain to escort you to all meetings and meals until you feel comfortable in this new environment.

After a long day of becoming familiar with your new surroundings, those first day jitters will begin to dissipate.

We look forward to meeting you.

Warmly,
Lois Turner-Feig, LCSW-C,
Retreat Program Director